North Avenue Beach is a Chicago Park District beach at North Avenue and Lake Michigan, along DuSable Lake Shore Drive at the south end of lakefront Lincoln Park. It is the closest public swimming beach to the Lincoln Park neighborhood and one of the city’s busiest summer spots.
What it’s known for
The beach house is designed to look like a docked ocean liner, in blue and white with upper decks and portholes. The current concrete building, by Wheeler Kearns Architects, was built in 1999 and dedicated in May 2000; it replaced a 1940 Art Moderne ship-shaped building by Emanuel V. Buchsbaum. It holds Castaways Bar and Grill, with walk-up food on the first level and a rooftop deck.
The beach has volleyball courts and equipment rentals, plus concessions renting bikes, kayaks, paddleboards, jet skis and lounge chairs. North Avenue Beach is also the center of the free Chicago Air and Water Show each August, which stretches along the lakefront from Fullerton Avenue to Oak Street.
Good to know
- Hours: Beach open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; lifeguards on duty 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the season, which runs from the Friday before Memorial Day through Labor Day, per the official site, October 2026. Swimming is allowed only when lifeguards are on duty.
- Volleyball: Court rental is $15 per hour; call (312) 802-5839.
- Accessibility: An accessible beach walk runs to the water, and a free beach wheelchair can be borrowed with ID from the lifeguard office.
- Parking tip: The paid lot is small and fills fast, and it closes to the public during the Air and Water Show; the Park District encourages transit.
See more in the parks and lakefront guide and the Lincoln Park events calendar.
Sources: chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/north-avenue-beach, wbez.org/arts-culture/2026/08/13/what-to-know-about-the-2026-chicago-air-and-water-show
Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
